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Net Q & A
Question of the Month: May 2000
I was wondering if you would be willing to take a look at a new site I have had created and offer any thoughts on it. The address is www.KickLaw.com. Thanks.
Erin Kick, Esq.
Answer
Note: Ms. Kick is in the process of upgrading her site, so it may look different by the time you read this review. Most of the advice provided is generic information that will be useful without reference to the original site.
Your site doesn't look too bad after a quick review. You avoid the large, slow-downloading graphics that plague many other law firm sites. Excessively large graphics is the single most common problem with law firm web sites.
The download size for your default entry page is about 20K, which is pretty good, actually.
The site should provide some benefits to your legal practice, but don't expect too much from it, though. The three keys to a highly successful law firm web site are:
- Focus
- Value
- Reach
Focus
You are smart to zero in on a few substantive areas, in this case, estate planning and related topics. This is "focus." This is the right direction, and again, you are doing much better than most law firm web sites. Most law firms try to market themselves as being "full service law firms." They want to be all things to all people. The problem is that such an approach does not make you stand out among the thousands of other law firms that take a similar tack, so instead of being all things to all people, they wind up being nothing to nobody.
Law firms fall into this trap because they don't understand that the Internet gives them flexibility to present different faces to different markets, and that a "full service" firm is actually one made up of many different specialty areas.
You avoid this trap. Your focus (i.e., "narrowness,") is good. The problem is more with step 2, "value."
Value
After a quick initial visit, your site appears to be on the border between being a "brochure site" and being a "magnet site" (see the discussion in the December Q & A for an explanation of these terms).
I don't see a real lure to attract new clients. As is, this site could serve to "qualify" you, or convince people who have already decided to visit your site that you are competent to assist them with legal problems in this area. However, do you have anything that will actively draw people to your site? You have some value, but I'm not sure you have enough to accomplish this (at least if you do, it's not readily apparent to the casual surfer).
The Acid Test of Value:
Ask yourself, what could I do on my site that would make someone who was writing a magazine article or doing a web site of interest to my target market (i.e., people interested in estate planning) consider me a "must-have" link? That is the key. Make your site so valuable that people building web pages for your target market will believe that it will benefit their audience. Third party links/endorsements like this are invaluable sources of referrals that give you credibility that you can't buy with money.Reach
Just in case you are wondering, the third factor, "reach," refers to making your site easy to find, and then promoting it effectively. This is a formidable task in itself. An excellent article by Dennis Kennedy, Site Plan: 12 Steps to Promoting Your Web Site, is available at the ABA Law Practice Management magazine archives.
Other Resources
The Marketing section of this web site contains links to many other resources.
Good luck.
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This page last revised:
December 25, 2002.